A Line in the Sand
by sonicking2004
Summary: In the Kane Chronicles story "The Red Pyramid" Amos Kane said, "Manhattan has other problems, other gods. It's best we don't get involved." But what if Carter and Sadie decide that the end of the world is the best time to get involved? Does it really matter if the world ends by Apophis eating the sun or by Gaia killing us all? Takes place after Mark of Athena & The Serpent's Shadow
1. Chapter 1: Carter

**Chapter 1: Carter**

Hello, it's me again, your friendly neighborhood Egyptian magician, former godling, and absentee pharaoh Carter Kane. Now I know what you're thinking: you didn't expect to hear from me for a while, if ever again. You figured that once my sister and I, along with our friends, execrated Apophis (a.k.a. the bad tempered, bloody big snake of Chaos that once swallowed my girlfriend whole) and saved the whole bloody world from ending (ugh, I'm starting to pick Sadie's bad English terms…._OW!_ I thought you were outgrowing that habit of hitting, Sadie!), anyway, you thought I'd look forward to just being bored training a bunch of new magicians on how to channel the power of the gods, should they ever return from deep within the Duat.

I know that you're thinking that because it is much the same thing that _I_ was thinking. I was also thinking that I might have a peaceful moment in which I might find the time to gather enough courage to ask said girlfriend (who's no longer hosting an elderly Egyptian male sun god, thank goodness) if she'd like to go steady. I certainly was not anticipating to meet any other gods (other than my sister's boyfriend, who merged with her other, mortal boyfriend so that the latter can live and the former could have a life. Don't ask.) for a long, _long_ time. Nor was I anticipating that I'd have to wear the crown of the pharaoh and lead the House of Life in a Martin Luthor King-esque peaceful demonstration, putting us in in the path of some very angry and powerful teens with feathery helmets and sharp swords, all to prevent a second American Civil War that would likely wake up a powerful and evil Earth goddess (whose nothing like our own gentle Earth god Geb, thank you very much) who would end up killing us all. I was not counting having to race to prevent Armageddon. Again.

I'm getting ahead of myself, though. I should start from the beginning. I had just woken up from a relatively peaceful rest with my neck once again aching, due to the fact I was using that extremely uncomfortable metal Egyptian headrest. I had once tried to sleep without it, only to have my Ba (That's Egyptian for soul, for those of you who may just be joining is….shut up, Sadie, I'm not such a know it all!) to have my Ba slip into the Duat and spy on a meeting between Set, the evil god of Chaos, and a demon who was only pretending to work for him but was really serving the even more evil (and before mentioned) Apophis. Since then, I've played it safe and always used that thing, but I've never gotten used to how uncomfortable it is. One of these days, I'm gonna invent a pillow that I can set around that headrest, one made from materials that won't interfere with its function of keeping my Ba from wandering when I don't want it to while saving my neck from becoming permanently bowed.

As I walked along, I passed Shelby, who was once again regaling the younger kids about how she single-handedly killed the great big snake (bless her little heart), when I spotted Zia at the dinner table sipping on a glass of orange juice. She smiled shyly when she saw me, and I could tell that she had waited to start her breakfast proper until I had gotten up (which I suppose I should try doing so earlier now, since I'm supposed to be grooming myself into a proper leader, and not just one that leads our group into life-and-death situations. You know, set a good example.) I had just sat down, spread some cream cheese on my bagel and had opened my mouth about to ask if she'd like to go out with me on a date this afternoon when there was a knock on our front door (or rather the door that serves as a link to the door of the building our home is magically sitting invisibly on top of.) Heaving a huge sigh, I gestured to Zia that I'd be back in one moment, I went to the door wondering who would be calling on an apparently abandoned warehouse building in the heart of Brooklyn.

As I opened the door, I saw a UPS delivery driver holding a thin package and one of those electronic signature devices. When he saw me, he turned to fully face me and asked, "Carter Kane?" Before I could think to play dumb or send this guy away, as there was little reason for anyone to send me anything here (due to the fact that 90% of the people I care about are already living here and 9% are either dead or unreachable due to distance in the Duat) my still-on-autopilot brain had me saying, "Yes?" The UPS man handed me the signature device and said, "Sign here, please." As I was penning my signature, I glanced up at his nametag and had to stifle a laugh. _His name isn't really "Hermes", is it? I thought to myself._ As I finished signing and handed him back the device, I half expected him to call over an elephant or do something equally outrageous before announcing that I was on Candid Camera. Instead, he just handed me the small rectangular package before tipping his hat, saying, "Have a nice day," before climbing back into his delivery truck and driving away.

As I closed the door, I heard Zia come up behind me and say, "Who was that, Carter?"

"UPS," I said simply, still somewhat stunned by the surrealness of the situation, then gestured at the package and said, "Had a delivery for me."

"What is it?" Zia asked me.

Shrugging, I proceeded to open one of the narrow ends of the box. When I tipped the open end of the box towards my other hand, an iPad 3 slid out into it. At least, it looked like an iPad for the most part. The main difference? The round indented button that normally has a square printed on it had the Greek Omega printed on it instead. Now I'm sure that most of you are thinking, _Carter, you're not stupid enough to hit a button displaying the Greek symbol for "end", are you?_ Well guess what? I am.

And I did.

And that's why I dropped the tablet in startlement as a 30 foot man holding a strange staff suddenly appeared towering over me.


	2. Chapter 2: Sadie

**Chapter 2: Sadie**

Of course, leave it to my 10% leaderly, 90% _moronic_ brother to casually invite a strange god into our house! (what are you glaring at _me_ for, Carter? That's pretty much how you just described yourself a second ago. Oh, whatever!) I was in the middle of explaining to my boyfriend Walt Stone (or rather to Anubis, the godly side of same boyfriend) the finer points of what he may say or not say to other girls, like how to compliment what they're wearing without crossing the fine line into flirting, when I was startled by a chorus of screams from the main dining area. Walt and I raced over there only to stumble to a stop in the doorway, where my stomach did a flip-flop. I was staring up at a 30-foot guy wearing something that looked like Grandma's drapes that was belted around his waist, a hat that looked like one that I saw that Flash bloke wear in one of Grandpa's old comics, only with real flapping wings on this one, sandals that also had flapping wings, and one of those winged staff things you often see on hospital walls, and while the wings on the staff weren't real the snakes that curled around it seemed real enough.

"Sorry about the dramatic entrance, Carter," the giant addressed my brother, "But I needed to talk to you guys in private, and I figured that if you accepted my delivery then it'd get me in past your anti-god wards."

Have I mentioned that my brother is a bloomin' _idiot!_ As I was glaring at Carter and was about to open my mouth to have some choice words with him, I saw from the corner of my eye that Walt was looking even more livid than I felt. He wasn't looking at Carter though but at our huge visitor. Just as I was thinking, _Uh oh, Royal Rumble XX, Godly Edition!_ Walt growled softly, "Mercury."

For a moment the god's form flickered, like a telly trying to get two channels at once, and he briefly looked different: a bit sterner, his staff thing had the wings about half-mast rather then clear at the top, and his clothing now looked more like bedspreads affixed at the shoulders. After a second he changed back to the way we saw him when we first entered, then he said cordially, "Hello, Anubis. It's been a while since we last met."

"If by 'last met' you're referring to when your people were slaughtering mine," Anubis said, his growl having lightened not a whit, "then yes, it has been a while."

"Walt?" I asked in a calming tone, not wanting to be ringside at a brawl between my boyfriend and some god I didn't know, "You know this bloke?"

Walt, hearing the concern hidden in my tone, made an effort to calm down, though he was still very tense when he said, "Sadie, this is Mercury, god of commerce and travel, as well as the messenger of the Roman gods."

I held up my hands as I said, "Wait wait wait, did you say Roman?!" I may be a bit rubbish when it comes to the knowing about all this Egyptian stuff, but there's one thing I recall very clearly: Rome had conquered Egypt, which directly led to the House of life forbidding the following of the Path of the Gods for the longest time. And now Walt was saying that we had a bloody Roman _god_ taking up space in our dining hall?

The bloke then addressed me and said, "I'm also known as Hermes, god of travelers, thieves, etcetera, of the Greek gods. I'm also known as 'that UPS guy'," at which he shrunk down to the size of a medium-large adult and his attire changed to reflect that of a UPS delivery driver.

With his reduction in size, some of the younger bits started to relax some, but I was still too keyed up to let this bloke off the hook yet, god or no. "I don't care if you're the bloomin' Japanese god of birthday parties, what are you doing in our bloody house?"

"Right, the point of today's visit," Hermes said softly, then asked, "What do you know about Gaia?"

"Wasn't she like the one who gave birth to all of you gods?" my brother asked.

"Close, but not quite," Hermes corrected him, "she'd be more like our grandmother or, like in my case, great-grandmother. Anyway, she convinced Kronos, her son to kill her husband Ouranos to avenge the imprisonment of her children, the Cyclopes, in Tartarus. Later, when the titan's own children, the gods, overthrew the Titans, she got angry and had another batch of children, the Giants, who were born with the sole purpose to kill and replace the gods. However, by fighting together with their demigod children, the Olympians managed to emerge victorious. Fast forward to more recent events: the Titans, together with the assistance of my wayward demigod son Luke, tried again to destroy Mount Olympus. If it weren't for the aid of our demigod children, they might've succeeded this time."

"Um," I interrupted, "not that this isn't all bloody fascinating, but what does that all have to do with us and why you're here?"

"I'm getting to that," Hermes answered, "Recently, Gaia had released many of her Giant children, and even though 5 of them were defeated again, there are still a number of them out there, working to free one another and on waking her up. She sleeps most of the time, you see, because she has too much power to remain awake. If she were ever to wake up fully, we'd all be toast, you lot included. The main reason I'm here is due to an event that occurred over in California. Hera, or Juno if you're following the Roman version, had a plan to bring together our Greek and Roman demigod children in a united front. It was a risky plan due to the fact that Greeks and Romans always mistrusted one another and fought whenever they got together, but she was convinced that was the only way we'd be able to defeat the Giants once again. Her plan might've worked too, except that Gaia had sabotaged the peace mission by having some eidolons possess some members of the advance group and forced them to attack the Roman camp."

"Eidolons?" I asked.

"Evil spirits," Anubis explained to me, then he faced Hermes again, "which is why I _told_ you that merely imprisoning souls like that is a bad idea!"

"Ok," Hermes said irritably, "1) I'm not the one in charge of the dead, that would be Hades/Pluto. If you want to discuss the sentences the souls receive, I'm sure he'd love to debate it with you once this is all over. And 2) if you think your system is so perfect, perhaps we should talk about a certain spirit named Setne."

Walt once again looked like he wanted to throw down with Hermes, so I placed a restraining hand on Walt's shoulder as I asked Hermes, "Where do we fit in with all of this?"

"As a result of the disaster at Camp Jupiter, the Romans there have been egged on into declaring war on the Greek demigods here, in New York."

"Wait, the Greeks are here?" Zia asked.

"To be more specific," Hermes answered, "they're on the outskirts of the city. The last time Greek and Roman demigods fought, it triggered the American Civil War. Now I don't think that you want such a conflict starting up in your own back yard, do you?"

There were a few gasps from the older members of our group, and I was certainly among them. Although I was practically raised British, even I know that was one of the bloodiest and most devastating wars America ever experienced, largely because everyone that was killed was one of their own. And if New York was going to be Ground Zero of a second one…

"But what's even more important," Hermes said, interrupting my thoughts, "Is the fact that if that much demigod blood is spilt, then Gaea will wake up for sure, and I've already told you how bad that will be."

"But," Carter asked, "why are you here instead of there? What can we do?"

"Zeus/Jupiter has forbidden us to contact our Demigod children due to Hera's/Juno's apparent failure," Hermes explained, "and contacting the mortals would do little good, I'm afraid. Since he had issued no edicts about you, I'm afraid that you may be the best hope I have of us avoiding the worst and pulling out of this. Please, I must ask you to stop this conflict from happening. Don't let the Romans attack the Greeks or vice versa. Give the ones on the quest the time they need to close the Doors of Death and return to mend the fences here before it's too late for any of us."

Outside, we hear a crack of thunder despite that it's a clear day outside. "Uh oh," Hermes said, "it sounds like Zeus has figured out what I'm up to here. I'd better get going before he decides to take it out on you." Hermes then picks up the tablet, which remained undamaged by my clumsy brother, and hands it back to him, reactivating it as he did so. "I hope you'll consider helping out here. All of our survival may rest on your shoulders." And with a flash of light, Hermes was gone.


	3. Chapter 3: Tyson

**Chapter 3: Tyson**

Tyson was miserable. More miserable than when he was growing up on the streets of New York alone, before he first met Percy. Infinitely more miserable than when Percy had disappeared, because stupid Hera needed him in her plan to try and bring the Greeks and Romans together and didn't bother telling anyone else about it before taking him. What Leo told him in his Iris message was worse than all of that plus Kronos's invasion of New York combined.

Tyson knew from the elder Cyclopes how terrible Tartarus was, and that was long before Gaia had whipped everything down there into a frenzy and got them to side with her. Even if his brother and Annabeth somehow survived the fall, Tyson didn't know how they would be able to survive down there alone.

Why did Tyson have to go to Camp Half-Blood and wait for the Romans to arrive? Sure his brother had asked him to, because he wanted Tyson to call the other Cyclopes to protect the camp if the Romans attacked before he and the others got back. Currently being the General of Daddy's armies, Tyson could do that. But if Tyson had went to Rome with Percy, then Tyson could have easily pulled Percy and Annabeth out of that big hole with one hand, even with the big bug lady still hanging on to the thread on Annabeth's leg, then he could have tore that thread with his other hand and let bug lady fall down the big hole alone.

Pretty Ella fluttered around Tyson's head, trying to cheer Tyson up, but it was no use. Tyson really liked Ella, and he knew that it hurt her to see Tyson so sad. But trying to smile to make Ella happy just made it hurt worse, so it never looked real enough to convince himself, and Ella was 20 times smarter than Tyson could ever be.

As Tyson was wishing for those Romans to hurry up and get here, so he could just scare them away and go get Percy, the air shimmered in front of him and Daddy appeared in front of him.

"Hello Tyson," Poseidon greeted him solemnly, "I'd ask how you are doing, but I can already tell by how red your eye is."

"Daddy…" Tyson sniffed and wiped his face, then tried again, "Daddy, Percy and Annabeth fell down the big hole."

"Yes, I know," Poseidon confirmed, "They are in Tartarus and are currently making their way to the House of Hades and the Doors of Death."

"You know where brother is?" Tyson said hopefully, and Ella was perked up by the upswing of Tyson's mood, "Then you can go get him! You can bring Percy and Annabeth home!"

"I'm sorry, but I cannot," Poseidon said gravely, "Even if Zeus hadn't forbade us from contacting our demigod children in any way, and even if Gaia was not in control down there, Tartarus is far beyond the realm of most of us gods. Besides, it would be really bad if I tried to intervene so directly in Percy's destiny. The Fates would see to that."

"Oh," Tyson said dejectedly, becoming depressed once more.

Poseidon placed his hand on Tyson's shoulder and said with a sad smile, "I cannot help Percy, but perhaps you can."

"Me?" Tyson asked confused, "But….but Percy asked…"

"I know he asked you to protect the camp, and I have a solution to that," Poseidon said, then gestured towards the nearby mountains as a giant man with so many arms that no chest or stomach was visible came climbing over them, "You remember Braires, don't you?"

"Braires!" Tyson called out excitedly. Of course Tyson remembered Braires, as Tyson and he had recently worked together with all the other Cyclopes to chain down Typhon and drag him into the sea. Now that was fun!

"Braires will act as your lieutenant, and as such will have the same power to command the Cyclopes into battle in your absence," Poseidon explained, "In addition, I've heard from Hermes that he's asked someone else to help as well; some Egyptian magicians. Even though they follow different gods than us, they have just as much to lose if fighting between the Greeks and Romans wakes Gaia up. Personally speaking, I hope they agree to help, as the sight of these kids is less likely to provoke an immediate attack by the Romans than the sight of it being defended by, forgive me for saying this, a bunch of monsters."

"Gaia attacked the Romans with monsters," Tyson said in understanding, "The Romans see us guarding the camp, they'll think the Greeks are working with Gaia and will want to attack them more."

"Exactly," Poseidon confirmed.

"Then, I can go?" Tyson asked hopefully, "I can go help Percy?"

"If you choose to do so," Poseidon said, still smiling sadly, "then yes, you may take Mrs. O'Leary and help him."

"Then I'll go!" Tyson said, practically bouncing with excitement, "I'll go bring him and Annabeth home right now!"

"Wait Tyson, it won't be that easy," Poseidon said quickly before Tyson could take off, "Traveling directly to Tartarus will be nearly impossible for anyone to accomplish safely, even for you and Mrs. O'Leary. There is perhaps only one place where you might manage it."

"The Doors?" Tyson asked.

"Yes, that's correct," Poseidon agreed, "When you meet the others there, it may be possible for Mrs. O'Leary to take you through the open doors to the other side, where hopefully Percy and Annabeth will be waiting."

As Tyson nodded in understanding, Poseidon continued sadly, "There is another problem: In order to prevent Gaia's forces from continually returning to Earth and eventually overwhelming us, the Doors of Death must be closed. This has to be done on both sides, otherwise, they can just be forced open again."

"But if Percy closes the doors, then Mrs. O'Leary and I can't get him out, right?" Tyson asked, panicked.

"That's right," Poseidon said sadly, "Whomever closes the doors from the Underworld's side will likely be trapped there forever."

Now Tyson knew why Daddy was so sad, what he was asking Tyson to do. Either Percy and Annabeth could close the doors and be stuck in Tartarus forever, or Tyson could get them out and close the doors himself. Either way, Daddy would have to watch as one of his sons doomed themselves to death and terrible exile forever.

"If Percy dies there," Tyson acknowledged, "then he'll be stuck in Tartarus. But if he comes back, then when he eventually dies he can go to Elysium. Percy and Annabeth belongs there. And Tyson's a monster. If Tyson dies, he can just come back someday."

"Perhaps," Poseidon confirmed, "But it could be a long, long time. If you are able to return, Percy could have died long ago."

"But Percy will have lived," Tyson countered, "Even if Tyson never sees them again, Percy and Annabeth not dying in Tartarus will be good. And he can help the others beat Gaia."

Poseidon nods sadly, knowing Tyson's decision was made. "It would probably be best if you don't tell the others of this, especially Percy."

Tyson nods in understanding, "Percy is my brother, he wouldn't let Tyson take his place."

"Just know that I'm proud of you, my son," Poseidon said, tears in his eyes as he vanished from view.

Tyson then looked over at Ella perched on his shoulder and said, "Ella should just stay here, where it's safe. Tartarus is not a nice place for harpies."

Ella shook her head vigorously as she said, "Ella wants to stay with Tyson forever. Where Tyson goes, Ella goes."

Tyson smiled as he wiped a tear from his eye. Tyson could not ask for better company. Climbing on Mrs. O'Leary's back, Tyson hollered, "Come on, Mrs. O'Leary! We've got a long journey to go on to get to Greece!"


	4. Chapter 4: Leo

**Chapter 4: Leo**

Leo couldn't blame the others for keeping their distance from him since they'd left Rome. Even if the others didn't blame him and his deal with Nemesis for what had happened to Percy and Annabeth (and they'd assured him that they didn't, but still…), and even if his mood wasn't foul enough to send a full-grown Cyclops running away and cowering in fear, the racket that he was making in his makeshift workshop was a little much even for him, and he'd grown up in noisy machine shops.

Still, Leo would have liked it if at least one of his inventions could have borne fruit, one of his ideas could have worked well enough to help them to drag Percy and Annabeth out of Tartarus while allowing them to close the Doors of Death from both sides, but thus far all of his ideas turned out to be so much scrap. His extender arm turned out to be either too weak and wound up bending when carrying a load while extended, or too strong and wound up crushing whatever was in its grip. The remote-control Leo-bot proved too hard to control on the other side of a closed mortal door (and so probably would be useless on the other side of the Doors of Death), and was also prone to falling over and doing an excellent impression of a turtle flipped over onto its shell.

Still, Leo refused to give up. Dirt-lady Gaia may have used him to sabotage the peace efforts with the Romans, but Leo was going to throw a serious monkey wrench into her plans by getting his friends back and those doors closed.

_It's no use, Leo,_ Leo could almost hear Gaia whispering, _Percy and Annabeth are mine now, and you won't be able to craft or tinker your way out of this one, not as long as you have to use materials that come from me. Just relax and give up, and I'll make your death a pleasant one._

"Fat chance, Dirt Lady," Leo muttered to himself. As he worked on his latest idea, Leo wondered how Tony Stark managed to do it. The thought that he'd be comparing himself to a comic-book hero was almost amusing to him, especially since he'd shot down Jason's idea that he'd be able to fly like the Human Torch, but Leo couldn't help it. The greatest power Stark had wasn't the armor that he often fought others in; it was his prodigious mind that allowed him to invent that armor. And if Tony Stark, a mortal (yet fictional) man could come up with something like that, then why couldn't he? After all, Leo was the son of Hephaestus, who was like the god of inventing stuff.

It was when he'd had that thought earlier, after his Leo-bot flipped onto its back the last time, that Leo had come up with his latest idea. While scavenging Daedalus' workshop for anything useful, Leo had found a brilliant gem that glowed from within, which was tossed into the corner of the workshop. Very likely it was tossed because the Romans were unable to figure out what the gem did. Of course, Leo couldn't tell what the gem was used for either, but from what he could determine it seemed as if it contained vast power within. If that was true, then Leo had a good idea of what he would use it for.

Determined to succeed, Leo continued to work on his flight suit idea. If it worked, the juice contained within the gem would give the suit enough power to break free of the pull that Tartarus had on those contained within. In that case, whoever wore the suit would be able to close the Tartarus' side of the doors then simply fly on out of there, just like Iron Man.

Of course, his previous tests have thus far proven unsuccessful. Leo wasn't sure if it was because he wasn't tapping deep enough into the gem's energies, or if there was a calibration problem with the thruster output, or if Gaia was messing with them again.

Still, Leo would not let her win. He would save his friends, make sure that those doors are closed, then he would open a Leo-flavored can of whoop-ass for Gaia to enjoy.

_Please dad,_ Leo found himself praying, _help me to save them._ Getting no answer that he could determine, Leo went back to straightening out a sheet plate that he'd moved out of the way so he could work on the internal circuitry, all the while thinking of all the reasons he would make this work:

For his friends.  
WHAMM!  
For his mother.  
WHAMM!  
For his great-grandfather, Sammy Sr.  
WHAMM!  
For Hazel, who if it weren't for Gaia, would have lived and grown up to be his great-grandmother.  
WHAMM!  
For every instance where Gaia had interfered and made his life absolutely sucktastic.  
WHAMM! WHAMM! CRRRRAAAACCK!

A discharge of light and force knocked Leo back into the wall behind him. What just happened? Leo thought to himself. The suit shouldn't have done that just from his hitting the external plates, and that sound he'd heard…?

With an uneasy feeling, Leo walked back up to his worktable, and what he saw made his heart sink into his stomach. In his fury, his hammer had slipped and struck the power gem rather than the sheet plate he'd been working on, the force of the blow causing the gem to split cleanly in two. Praying he was wrong, Leo took some readings and found his worst fears realized: the gem had discharged at least one third of the energy it contained, maybe even more. Even if he could make it work in its current state, the suit wouldn't have enough juice to break free of Tartarus' pull. Pulling out one half of the broken gem and cradling it like a fatally wounded bird, Leo could swear that he'd heard Gaia's mocking laughter.

Fury rising in his chest, he whirled around and tossed the gem half in his hands into the stable where he'd moved the Pegasus feed to while converting this room into his workshop. As the gem glittered in the straw, Leo found that he couldn't bear to look at it anymore, so he slammed the workshop door closed and slumped against it.

As he hung his head in his hands, he found that he could still smell the straw from the stable. But that couldn't be right, he'd specifically made this room airtight so that his friends still on the Argo II wouldn't be made sick from any of the fumes created by his experiments. As he followed the smell to its source, he saw some straw scattered on the flight suit he'd been working on.

_Now how did that get there?_ Leo thought to himself. As he started dusting it off, he'd accidentally nudged the remaining half of the gem, causing it to rotate slightly. As he did, the table and everything on it started flickering in and out of existence.

"What the…?" Leo exclaimed. Reaching quickly for the gem, he realigned it with its original position. This caused the work-desk to snap back into stability again, like a TV whose channel Leo had brought back into focus. Out of curiosity, Leo gingerly reached out, then quickly spun the gem 180 degrees in its socket, which caused the desk and suit pieces to completely disappear. The gem, or at least A gem, was still there, but in the desk's place was a large pile of straw. Not believing what he was seeing, he opened the door to look out into the stables. Sure enough, his desk and everything on it was now in the stable where the straw used to be.

"No way!" Leo breathed. Closing the door again, Leo went over to the straw and twisted the gem around in it. Before his eyes, the desk replaced the straw pile. Twisted it back, straw. Back again, desk. He was so giddy at his remarkable discovery, he didn't realize he was actually laughing until he heard a pounding at the door accompanied by Piper's voice asking anxiously, "Leo? Are you alright in there?! We heard an explosion!"

Trying to sober himself up, Leo said, "Yeah, I'm fine in here."

"Well if you're blowing stuff up, don't leave me out of the fun," said Coach Hedge, their semi-psychopathic satyr-protector and former gym coach.

"Nah," Leo responded, "No blowing up here, just an intense energy discharge, that's all. No damage done."

"Aww," Coach hedge grumped, "got my hopes up over nothing."

"Well, just be careful in there," Leo heard Jason say, "We can't afford to lose….anymore of us, okay?"

"Don't worry," Leo assured them, "I'll be fine." _In fact,_ Leo thought to himself, _if my latest idea works out, we'll get even more of us back!_ Of course he's have to come up with an apparatus, and he'd have to figure out a way to get it over to them, but now he had a feasible idea to work with. Sitting down at a drafting table, Leo started sketching out his idea. As the project took form, Leo got a grim smile in his face as he thought, _You've messed with me for the last time, Gaia, and now you're gonna rue the day you got on the wrong side of Leo Valdez!_


	5. Chapter 5: Annabeth

**Chapter 5: Annabeth**

The first thing that Annabeth noticed upon waking was the ringing in her ears and the stuffiness of her brain. She never felt this groggy waking up, not even during the exceedingly rare 4 hour naps she'd allowed herself to take while she'd been frantically searching for Seaweed Brain after he'd disappeared. Correction: when Her Annoying-ness Hera _took_ him as part of a plan that pretty much fell on its face anyway.

The next that she'd noticed was the smell: A strange combination of stale air, the mustiness of deep earth, the putridness of rotting flesh, and a sweet-sour animal musk that almost overpowered the other scents. While the last one she recognized as the stench of monsters, the others she wasn't able to place when or even if she'd ever smelled them before.

Blinking the grit out of her eyes, it took much longer than normal for her eyes to focus. Even blurry, though, she saw a silhouette that she'd recognize even if she'd been rendered nearly blind.

"Seaweed Brain?" Annabeth mumbled, as if her mouth were stuffed with cotton and marbles.

Looking back at her, Percy sighed with relief as he said, "Annabeth, you're awake!"

"Where…?" Annabeth took one moment to try and gather her jumbled thoughts together, then tried again, "Where are we?"

Looking around anxiously, his sword Riptide in hand, Percy said, "Pretty much the absolute worst place to take a nap, that's for sure."

She started to sit up to try and get a better look at her surroundings, then suddenly the fog in her brain was gone. The strange smells was gone. All that existed in her world was the pain: A line of fire that started in her left leg, stretched up the left side of her body into her brain, then rebounded back down her spine to leak out to the rest of her body. In order to keep from screaming, Annabeth bit her lip hard enough that she taste blood on her tongue.

Once the pain died down to a throbbing pulse and the brain-fog remained gone, she remembered the events that led up until now: her mental showdown with her mother's nemesis Arachne, Percy blasting his way into her lair in the Argo II, then the two of them being yanked by one of Arachne's webs down the large crack into….

"Tartarus," Annabeth panted, "We're in Tartarus."

Percy nodded matter-of-factly, then asked, "Are you all right?"

Understanding that he wasn't asking if she was unhurt, Annabeth said simply, "I think that my leg is broken again."

Pursing his lips, Percy first examined her leg visually, then with the gentlest touch possible he began to check it by feel. Even though he tried to be gentle, even that smallest contact caused a flare-up of pain so large that she wanted to punch a hole through the armored hull of the Argo II. Finally done, he announced, "I didn't find any signs of additional breaks, or that what had healed of your break had came undone. There could possibly be a sprain on top of everything else, but I think that most of the pain is from the Ambrosia wearing off."

Annabeth panted, "I don't suppose you have any more on you, do you?"

Percy smiled sardonically, "Fresh out, I'm afraid."

"Why do you think we're still alive?" Annabeth asked.

Percy pointed with his sword as he said, "Partly, I think, because she broke our fall."

Gently turning her head to follow his direction, Annabeth saw the limp body of Arachne, still bound in the giant Chinese Finger-cuffs she'd tricked Arachne into weaving herself.

"Mostly, however," Percy continued, "I think Gaia made certain that the fall wouldn't kill us. Now that we're pretty much in her embrace with no way out, I believe that she's going to make sure that we don't die until we're at the place she wants it to happen. The Doors of Death would be my guess."

"Well that's comforting," she said dryly, "So, how do we get out of here?"

Percy was quiet for a long while before saying, "Annabeth, I don't think there's going to be a way 'out of here', for us this time."

Annabeth was stunned by Percy's revelation. She was the daughter of Athena, goddess of Wisdom, and as such had come up with her fair share of battle strategies and clever tricks to seemingly impossible situations. Despite that, she knew what they were facing and had seen no good way to get out of this situation. Percy, however, had always managed to come up with some crazy solution that didn't seem to follow any logic she knew of, yet somehow managed to work all the same. If he had declared their situation to be hopeless….

"The only possible way out of here that I know of would be through the Doors of Death at the House of Hades," Percy continued, "but if we do that, then we'll be playing right into Gaea's hands. These doors need to be closed from both sides in order for the dead and the monsters to be properly restrained down here where they belong. If we escape and just close the other side, I'm afraid that they'd be able to just force them open again, and it'd be difficult to impossible to return to close them properly."

It hurt her deeply to suggest what she was about to, but she could not bear the thought of him being stuck down here forever with angry monsters and an angrier Gaia. "You could escape, you know. You could go back to the others, help them stop the Giants from destroying Mount Olympus, save the world. They need you."

"But I need_ you,_" Percy countered, "Even if I took you up on your offer, and I would not do that even if you were merely a friend or an acquaintance; if I left you down here to die I'm pretty sure that I would never see you again. I don't think that your soul would be able to leave this place to go to the Elysian Fields where you belong, or even to the Fields of Asphodel. Spending the rest of my life without you would be hard enough, being away from you for eternity would be intolerable." Percy then smiled her favorite crooked smile and said, "I could make you the same offer of escape, but I think I know you too well to believe for an instant that you would possibly take it."

Annabeth was almost too choked up with emotion to say, "You'd better believe it, Seaweed Brain!"

"Well then," Percy announced, as he helped her to get up onto her good leg, "those doors aren't going to close themselves, so we'd best get going."

Looking back at Arachne, Annabeth asked, "Think we should just leave her?"

Percy, following her thought, answered, "Probably be best. You have her pretty well restrained, and if I were to finish her off... Monsters that we vanquish are sent back to Tartarus, namely where we're at. If she follows the same pattern of turning to dust and re-forming in Tartarus as other monsters...I don't think that either of us want to take the chance of her being unbound when she wakes up."

Annabeth, who'd pretty much came to the same conclusion, said, "Right. Let's go."

So with Percy supporting her to keep her from putting any weight on her bum leg and keeping Riptide in his left hand, Annabeth hobbled along with him off into the gloom of Tartarus.


	6. Chapter 6: Zia

**Chapter 6: Zia**

Truth is, I don't entirely agree with Sadie's description of Carter as an "idiot", but at times I do feel that he takes far too much responsibility on his young shoulders. Like now, for instance. As we disembarked from the boat that Freek had pulled to take us to the First Nome, I said to my boyfriend, "You know, Carter, I'm beginning to feel that you are….how do you Americans put it? 'A glutton for punishment.' "

Carter turned his eyes towards me as he said, with a soul weary sigh, "You may be right, but we don't have many options here."

As he led Walt, Sadie and myself out of the already hot morning air and into the hidden passage into the Sphinx that led to the First Nome proper, I tried again, "You are talking about leading us into battle against the Romans, the very people that nearly wiped us out centuries ago!"

"Actually, it's more like I'm leading us to try and prevent the Romans from battling with the Greeks," Carter corrected me, "and I understand most of them will be kids like us anyway."

"And you think that matters?" I implored him, "You heard what Hermes said: those Romans are out for blood! Do you think that they would stop?"

"Permanently? Probably not," Carter conceded, "But from what I've learned about them, the Romans are very methodical in their attack strategies. They seldom go to war without a plan, as well as a backup plan. But those plans are likely to be centered around the Greeks and what forces of Gaia's they erroneously believe are allied with them. They will likely not be expecting us, and I believe that alone will give them reason to pause, maybe even listen to reason."

"But if they don't?" I asked him, "If we can't buy the time that the questing heroes need over in Europe? We've had so little time together, Carter, I'm not ready to lose you just yet!"

"I know what you mean," Carter acknowledged, "I wish that we could've just had a bit more time to be a typical pair of teenagers, to get to know each other better. But if the blood shed by the Greek and Roman demigods fighting causes Gaia to wake up, then we won't get that time. Even if our gods hadn't been made to retreat deep into the Duat, I'm not sure if our Geb would be any use in preventing Gaia from destroying all of human civilization."

As I was trying to come up with some argument to sway Carter from his course of action, Chief Lector Amos Kane met us in the throne room and said, "Carter! Sadie! It's so nice to see you kids again! And it's good to see you as well, Zia and Walt! But what brings you all here this time of day?"

I tried my best to keep the bitterness out of my voice as I replied, "Ask your nephew, Chief Lector!"

Apparently my attempt was not good enough, as Amos looked between myself and Carter with concern before asking us, "What's happened?"

As he started to explain the events of only a couple of hours ago, I found I could only bear to listen for about a minute before I could not stand to listen any longer, so I settled into a meditative trance to find my center.

By the time I came out of my meditation, feeling my emotions much less turbulent and my focus more clear, Amos had brought many of the most gifted scryers into the throne room to conference the other Nomes, then he took his traditional position beside the throne while Carter stood before it wearing the headdress of the Pharaoh.

"My friends and fellow magicians," Carter began, "when I last stood before you, I had informed you that I would only assert my authority as Pharaoh either during times of great conflict or once I had obtained the age and wisdom necessary to guide us in the day-to-day affairs. Like yourselves, I'd hoped for the latter, but unfortunately it seems that a great crisis is threatening to shatter the peace we'd fought so hard to earn!"

"As I speak, an army of Roman demigods are marching on a camp of Greek demigods situated just outside of New York City in order to seek vengeance for an attack they wrongly believe was perpetuated by them. As it turns out, the attack was carried out by an evil spirit known as an eidolon that was allied with the ancient Earth goddess known to the Greeks as Gaia."

"Now many of you may be wondering what any of this has to do with us, why we should involve ourselves in this conflict when we have maintained a strict separation from the affairs of other pantheon of gods than our own. The fact is that if war breaks out between the Greeks and the Romans, the resulting bloodshed will wake the vengeful Gaia. She would then proceed to destroy all of human civilization, and we would not be spared."

"Right now, a small group of demigod heroes with both Greek and Roman parentage are on a quest to close the Doors of Death in Europe that is allowing monsters to escape from their underworld, then they will return with a symbol that may enable them to stop the conflict between their people for good. The only thing they need is the time to do so, and that is where we come in."

"I'm sure that you may be wary of confronting an enemy that once caused the downfall of our civilization. I myself feel the same, but we have little choice here. If Gaia wakes up, then we are all doomed."

"Let me be clear here that our objective is not to fight the Roman demigods, but rather to stop them from fighting their Greek brothers and sisters. Since they're only prepared to wage war with the Greeks and whatever evil monsters the Romans falsely believe they are allied with, an unexpected force of Egyptian magicians may surprise them enough to stop their advance and buy the team of heroes the time needed to complete their quest."

"Hopefully, this will be the only time we will be drawn into any affairs concerning the gods of the Greeks or the Romans, but we may be the only ones now who can prevent the end of the world as we know it," Carder finished with a flourish as he extended his crook, "What say you!?"

With that, the voices of the leaders on the other Nomes shouted out in affirmation and support, and I remembered just what it was about Carter that I liked so much. Once the voices died down, Carter continued while referencing to a map displayed on the iPad given to him by Hermes, "Now here's my plan: first we'll need to use shabti to gather Egyptian artifacts powerful enough to support the generation of portals and have them brought to this location…"


	7. Chapter 7: Reyna

**Chapter 7: Reyna**

It had been a long journey, one which she was not exactly looking forwards to the end of. Regardless, they were now in upstate New York, and New York City was now on the horizon. If what Annabeth Chase said was true, if the location was accurate, that meant that the Greeks' camp was somewhere nearby. Once they've located it and gotten a firm understanding of what defenses they've established, then the battle would officially begin.

Reyna scowled as she consulted the map. She did _not_ want to be here, nor did she believe that the troops under her command should be here either. They should instead be making plans to confront the Giants and counter their efforts to wake Terra. This was largely due to Octavian and his blasted silver tongue! If he hadn't worked the Legion into a frenzy after the attack on Camp Jupiter, then they wouldn't be here about to declare war on the Greek demigods.

Of course she couldn't leave Annabeth or Percy Jackson out of their share of the blame. If only Annabeth had given up on her foolish quest, if Percy had simply honored the vows he made when he became praetor, and the promise he made when the flying ship had been first spotted approaching Camp Jupiter, then they could have avoided this colossal waste of time and senseless loss of lives.

Reyna sighed. As much as she wanted to put the blame of all of this on those three, there was on whom she knew was the most responsible for this mess: Juno! Juno, who came up with this crazy scheme of the Greeks and Romans working together! Juno, who'd taken Percy's memory and sent him to their camp in the first place! Juno, who'd taken Jason away from her just as they were getting to know one another, stolen his memory as well, and practically threw him into the arms of that child of Aphrodite! And now that her plan was coming apart at the seams, Juno couldn't even bother to come around to fix it!

As Scipio touched down, Reyna realized that the time for self introspection was over. She would organize the troops riding the eagles to form a boundary line to prevent any reinforcements from arriving as they waited for the remaining troops traveling by land to get here, then she would lead the legion into "glorious" battle with the Greeks. If she didn't, Octavian would surely take command of this attack himself, and there would surely be no survivors. Then, at best, he'd call for her to relinquish her title of Praetor to him. She didn't want to think of what the worst would be.

Looking through her spyglass, Reyna saw just how different Percy's Camp Half-blood was from her own camp. First was how different the cabins were from one another. She had heard a little about it from her talks wit Percy and Annabeth, but to see them with her own eyes… From what she understood, each cabin represented a different god, and that god's children would reside in that cabin while they're there. But to not have to swear allegiance, to not have to serve their group for a certain period of time, she couldn't imagine such a thing!

Then there was the security level of the place: from what she could tell, it was practically non-existent! No watch towers, no fences, certainly no grumpy statue-inhabiting gods! Annabeth told her that there was an invisible barrier that kept out monsters, which was generated by the tree that used to be her best friend, but she could see no sign of the barrier. The only real possible threat she could see was the dragon that was curled around a magnificent tree, from whose branches she caught a glimpse of what appeared to be a fuzzy golden bath mat.

The most striking difference that she saw was that there was no grown-ups here, at least no human ones. She saw a few fauns, dryads, naiads, and she thought she'd even saw a couple of centaurs, but the oldest human that she's spotted couldn't have been older than 19! There was nothing even remotely resembling New Rome! What did they do when they were no longer children? Did they simply do their best out in the mortal world? Did they even manage to live that long? Now, more than ever, Reyna wished that events had not lead up to this moment. Before, it was like picking a fight with someone just because they said something you didn't like. Now, it seemed more like hunting down a gravely wounded animal that's likely going to die from its wounds anyway. But she was a child of Rome, and so she would do her duty.

As Octavian landed beside her and looked through her spyglass at the camp, he chortled, "This is the Greeks' camp? It's pathetic! We should attack them now before they have a chance to sound an alarm!"

"I've told you this before," Reyna countered, "we will only attack once we have all gathered together, and only once we've planned our strategy around what defenses they might have set up."

"Defenses?" Octavian scoffed, "You must have surely saw, there were no defenses! We should attack while we have the element of surprise!"

"Certain of that, are you?" Reyna asked, a warning tone in her voice, "You've seen in your auguries that they have no hidden traps? No snares, or spike pits even?"

Octavian sputtered for a bit before retorting, "I'm starting to think that maybe you're growing soft on these Greeks, perhaps that's why you allowed that Percy Jackson to become Praetor!"

"You can come up with all the crazy claims you want, Octavian, but I'm a loyal child of Rome," Reyna said, barely able to keep her tone even, "I simply wish to avoid a repeat of the '80s Alaskan expedition."

That shut Octavian up! Reyna felt a strong sense of smugness as the loquacious Octavian's mouth gaped open and closed like a goldfish, clearly trying to find a clever retort. Before he could come up with anything, Dakota squinted off into the distance and asked, "What's that movement, off in the distance?"

Looking again through the spyglass, Octavian asked, "Are those….some sort of statues?"

Snatching her spyglass back from Octavian, Reyna saw that the figures that were moving were, in fact statues. Furthermore, they were moving at a great speed. But these statues were not of Greek design, or even Roman. "They appear to be of Egyptian origin," Reyna announced in disbelief, "and they each appear to be carrying something!"

As they watched, the Shabti formed a line between the camp and where Reyna and the others were currently gathering, then set their objects down, which were a wide variety of things from griffin statues to sarcophagi to 25 foot tall obelisks.

"What are they doing?" Dakota asked in confusion.

After a few moments passed, swirling portals of sand opened in front of each object, out of which marched what could be loosely described as an army. Though their attire varied from hoodies to cowboy outfits to traditional Egyptian attire, they all walked with a uniformity that clearly indicated that they were of one unit, and they were similarly armed with staffs and boomerang looking items. As they continued to step out of the portals, Reyna saw that this force, while not armed or armored as formidably as her own, was at least one and a half as large as hers, plus their method of travel indicated that they had abilities that her legions had not come prepared to face.

As the portals started to close, only the largest of them remained open. As she watched, Reyna and the others saw the force in front of it part and everyone knelt as five people emerged from it. One was a man with coffee-brown skin and braided hair, wearing a pinstriped suit and red-tinted sunglasses. Then there was a young man, possibly around 17 years old, who also had coffee colored skin, a clean-shaven head, athletic build, and wore a black muscle shirt, black jeans and leather jacket, combat boots and an amulet around his neck. One of the girls who emerged was obviously of Egyptian descent, with her caramel color skin, kohl lined eyes, jet black hair cut at the jawline, loosely fitting linen clothing, and a necklace whose centerpiece looked like some sort of scarab. The other girl who emerged had fair skin and caramel hair with bright colored streaks in it, and she wore tattered jeans combat boots, a light jacked opened to reveal a necklace from which dangled an amulet that looked like a wonky cross; obviously an Egyptian design.

The last one to emerge was the most striking of them all. A teenage boy who had coffee brown skin like the first two was wearing the apparel of a pharaoh, complete with headdress, crook and flail. As the five proceeded to the front of the large group, with the leader ahead of them, the force rose and formed a thick line between Reyna's group and the camp. As the boy pharaoh scanned Reyna's group he called out, "I would have peaceful words with the one who commands the force before me!"


	8. Chapter 8: Walt

**Chapter 8: Walt**

Hello, my name's Walt Stone, as many of you who may be listening know by now. Of course, those of you who are acquainted with our previous adventures know that I also go by the name of Anubis, god of the dead. I won't bore you by doing a complete rehash of how I came to be this way, but the Reader's digest version for those of you who may have missed a step or two: As Walt Stone, I was dying of a family curse which had claimed members of my family for as long as anyone could remember, and thus my time with Sadie Kane was doomed to be cut tragically short. As Anubis, I was forbidden by my elders to be together with Sadie due to the fact that I had never taken a human host, and such dalliances between gods and mortals (at least Egyptian gods in their pure forms) was considered extremely dangerous. So we reached an accord with one another: Anubis saved Walt's life, and Walt gave Anubis a chance to have a life. And in the end, we both got a chance to have what we wanted more than anything: a life with Sadie. The only real downside to this deal was that, as Anubis, my memory goes much further back than any of my companions, back to some much less pleasant times. Right now, I was experiencing something much worse than a bad case of déjà vu.

As we emerged from the portal, I saw arranged on a hillock in front of us some teenagers dressed up in Roman-style armor. Of course, I could tell by the way they held themselves that they weren't simply playing dress-up: these kids knew how to use those weapons and they meant business. Part of me wanted to tear them apart myself for what they had done to our kingdom in the past. The larger part, however, kept my head by reasoning that even though these kids were following the path of the Romans, they themselves had no part in Egypt's fall. Besides, we had come here to prevent a fight between the Romans and the Greeks, not to pick one ourselves. After all, we had barely survived trying to stop Anubis from bringing about the end of the world when we had the god to fight together with. I wasn't exactly looking forwards to having to do the same again against Terra, especially since I was the only god not forced back deep within the Duat.

As Carter looked at the group of soldiers looking down at us (which was currently small, though I could smell that more was on their way), he called out "I would have peaceful words with the one who commands the force before me!"

After the soldiers looked uneasily at one another (we did have them in numbers after all, though I know better than most that wouldn't matter much once their remaining troop arrived with their more potent weapons), an older girl in full battle armor descended down the hill together with a gangly, blond haired boy, also in battle armor. "Fair words," The girl began, quirking her right eyebrow till it disappeared under her helmet, "considering the impressive army that you've marshalled against us."

"We haven't marshalled an army against you, per se," Carter gently corrected, "We merely wish to discuss the ill-advised action that you have come here today to undertake. We've come here in in person and in these numbers because, due to how we've heard that many under your command were coming here extremely angry, we did not believe that shooting you a text asking you to stop your attack would be sufficient enough to make it happen."

" 'Greetings, Romans! Long time, no invasion!' " Sadie quipped, acting as if she were typing a text into her imaginary phone, " 'BTW, could u not attack the Greeks 2day? Still tired from fghtng Apophis, don't want u 2 wake Gaia so she can destroy world! :P ' "

I hid a smirk behind my hand. Good old Sadie! She had to be scared at the thought of possibly having to face a bunch of angry and heavily armed Roman soldiers, yet here she was trying to hide it with her sarcasm and biting humor!

The scrawny guy, who for some reason had several plush animals tucked under his belt in between his array of weapons, looked between us with a mixture of confusion and partly offended outrage asked, "Just who are you people?"

"An excellent question. One I wouldn't mind knowing the answer to myself," a low and gentle voice said some distance behind us. As the weapons of the Romans who were currently assembled bristled in agitation, we quickly spun around to find a man on horseback striding up towards us. The only thing was he wasn't on horseback, he was actually part horse! An actual centaur! Even with my extended past as Anubis I don't recall having ever even caught a glimpse of one, much less seen one this close! Gazing on the strange yet magnificent being approaching, I feel a strange impulse to ask if I may be permitted to ride upon his back, but I hold my tongue out of fear that I might offend him.

I was so preoccupied with the centaur that I almost didn't notice that a few teenagers in Greek armor had followed him and were now holding back. Their weapons were currently undrawn, as were those of the other teens currently looking on from the camp far below, but I know that could change rather quickly. As he got close enough, the centaur extended his hand and introduced himself, "I am Chiron, Activities Director of Camp Half-Blood and, in the absence of Mr. D, currently acting as overall Camp Director. And you would be…?"

Having finished sketching an hieroglyph in the dirt with his staff, which quickly vanished from view, Carter took the offered hand as he introduced them, "My name's Carter Kane, Leader of the Twenty-first Nome, former Eye of Horus and currently Pharaoh of the House of Life. Over here, we have my Uncle Amos, my Chief Lector and former Eye of Set. The joker over here is my sister, Sadie Kane, Scribe of Brooklyn House and former Eye of Isis. This here is my girlfriend, Zia Rashid, Scribe of the First Nome and former eye of Khepri-Ra. And this is my sister's boyfriend, Walt Stone, Lieutenant of Brooklyn House and Eye of Anubis. And we," Carter finished by gesturing at the rest of us assembled, "we are the House of Life."

"The House of Life?" Chiron asked, both curious and confused, "I've heard a bit about them during my study of ancient cultures, but I was under the impression that the Per Ankh were destroyed when Egypt fell to the Romans."

"It was a close thing, but the Per Ankh survived," Carter clarified, "There were some negative effects that lasted until recently, however, such as the Path of the Gods being forbidden. I don't think that right now is the ideal time to go into what the Path is or why it became forbidden. Perhaps later, once your crisis around Gaia is settled, we can discuss our cultures' respective histories?"

"I'll look forward to that," Chiron agreed.

"I do have one matter I'd like to ask about real quick though," Carter said, "You said that you were the Director of a camp, of 'Camp Half-blood'?"

"Acting Director," corrected Chiron, "Mr. D, the camp's Director, was recalled back to his home with no explanation, so I'm currently keeping things running in his stead."

"Mr. D….Dionysus, I'm guessing? The Greek god of wine, known to the Romans as Bacchus?"

"Indeed!" confirmed Chiron, looking rather impressed, "You seem rather knowledgeable about these things!"

"In addition to being a powerful magician in the House of Life, my father was a famed professor of archaeology," Carter explained, "Even though his specialty was Egyptology, he knew of other cultures as well, including Greek and Roman, and would often discuss them with me, usually in reference as to how similar or different they were to Egyptian…"

"Excuse me, Pharaoh Wikipedia," Sadie interrupted, "but would you kindly get to the bloody point?"

After flashing a look of irritation at his sister, Carter turned his attention back towards Chiron as he asked, "Anyhow, what I was trying to ask was did anybody by the name of Percy Jackson attend this camp of yours?"

A good many people among the Greeks and Romans react with shock and surprise when Carter mentioned that name, which left me wondering just how much did he know about all of this before Hermes paid us that visit, and just when had he originally planned to share it with the rest of us?

Apparently I was not the only one with these questions, as Chiron asked, "How do you know about Percy?"

"We fought together once, when we were both hunting the_ petsuchos_," Carter explained, "That means 'Son of Sobek', Sobek being the god of crocodiles. Actually, at first we wound up fighting each other, as I misunderstood what he meant when he mistakenly call me a half-blood and took offence, as my dad was African American and my mom was white. Anyway, we figured that someone, possibly somebody aligned with either one of your enemies like Gaia or one of our foes that was still around, had sent the _petsuchos_ into your camp to get the two of us to meet, hoping that it would cause trouble. Kind of like what's happening now between you Greeks and these Romans."

"That would make sense, the Olympian gods, in both their Greek and Roman aspects, have always been somewhat selfish in nature," Chiron speculated, "If they had become aware that the Egyptian gods were still around and exerting their influence in the territories that Zeus and the others consider to be their territories, that could precipitate a conflict between them."

"Well, I don't believe that'll be a problem for a while," I interjected, "With the exception of myself, all the Egyptian gods were forced back into the Duat when Carter and Sadie execrated Apophis's _sheut_. Even if I wanted to leave, which I don't, I wouldn't be able to. If I, that is to say if Anubis had retreated to the Duat, it would doom Walt Stone to death by means of his family curse. That would break Sadie's heart, and I don't think that she'd forgive either of us for that."

Chiron nodded in understanding, then turned back towards Carter and continued, "To answer your previous question, Percy did attend this camp until a few months ago when he was….drafted by Hera/Juno in a cultural exchange between the Greeks and the Romans. The results of that effort, as I'm sure you've guessed, is the events you see unfolding before us now. I've recently gotten a troubling report from the Argo II that Percy and Annabeth Chase have fallen into Tartarus."

The female Roman commander seemed genuinely shocked at this report, but the scrawny, plushie-loving jerk merely crossed his arms and sneered as he said, "Serves those two-faced Greeks right!"

Carter, the female Roman commander, and several others on both sides of out line glared at the crazy-eyed beanpole as they yelled simultaneously, "Shut up!" As the jerk takes a step back in surprise, Carter turned back towards Chiron as he added, "For what it's worth, I believe that Percy, at the very least, is still fine at the moment. Before we parted, I painted on his hand The Eye of Horus and asked him to call my name if he was ever in serious trouble. If he had, I would hear him through the hieroglyph and would know where he is, and thus would be able to go to him."

"That may be so, but Percy has often been rather self-reliant, and has strong ties of loyalty to his friends," Chiron countered, "I believe that he would sacrifice himself before he would endanger any of his friends to the same fate, which I believe does include you, Carter."

"That's a good point, but I believe that the same point could be made for Annabeth, perhaps doubly so," Carter pointed out, "While he may want to minimize what risk he'd put me under, I know from the tone of his voice when he mentioned her that she means more to him than anything. He'll probably wait until he's in as safe a place as can be found down there, then possibly contact me then to see if I can get her out."

"But the doors would have to be closed from both sides, so someone would have to stay behind to close them from the Tartarus side," Chiron said with a sad tone to his voice, an heavy edge to it that suggested that he'd seen it more times than he cared to remember.

"Which, from what you've said, I assume that Percy will reserve that task for himself," Carter concluded, "Still, I believe that he'll try to get her out before he does so, and if he does contact me to that end, then I'll try to convince him to let me be the one to close them. There may be no escape from Tartarus to the mortal world, but I may be able to travel from there to our own underworld, perhaps even to my father's court. From there, surely I'll be able to return."

"Are you crazy!?" Sadie admonished him, "I'm sorry if I didn't take your account of what happened with the _petsuchos_ seriously, but you don't even know if you'd be able to get down there, let alone if your magic would work enough in that place to create a portal to Dad's court! Are you willing to risk everything for a couple of kids you barely even know!?"

"Sadie's right," I agreed, "It might have been different if you could become the Eye of Horus again, but your magic isn't strong enough to create a portal where there is no Egyptian artifacts otherwise, and we all need you to much for you to take that risk. I, on the other hand, am the Eye of Anubis, the Egyptian god of death. It would make much more sense if I…"

"Don't. You. Dare think to finish that statement, Walter Stone!" Sadie barked at me, "You don't know if you can get out any more than Carter does. Besides, weren't you just listening to the centaur about how territorial the Greek and Roman gods are? Don't you think that whoever runs that place would get a little upset if you go in there without so much as a 'may I'?"

Taken aback by the fire in her eyes, I am barely able to stammer out, "I….well, that is….but…"

The skinny guy, who apparently had gotten fed up with being ignored as if he wasn't even there, squeaked out in outrage, "Excuse me

"Beg your pardon for a moment," Chiron said to us kindly, then he turned to the young man who was trembling slightly as he gripped his _pilum_ and said to him just as kindly, "Please forgive me, but it's not at all often that we get so many different visitors here, let alone all at once. Now, I believe that you and yours are here today to air a grievance?"

" 'To air a…'?" the young man said in disbelief, then he barked out angrily, "We're here to destroy your camp in retaliation of your cowardly attack you made on ours!"

"Ah, yes, about that," Chiron responded, "I understand the one in question did not do so of his own free will, but was possessed by an eidolon that was allied with Gaia and was acting under her orders to sabotage the peace effort."

"We're not interested in your excuses, you lying Greeks!" the young man, who I was finding myself like less and less the longer I was near him, spat back at Chiron, "That child of Hephaestus attacked our camp, and we do not believe that he was acting alone in that! We know that you Greeks are actually allied with Terra, and now you're siding with these….these…"

"Egyptians," Carter clarified, "and we're not aligned with them. As I said earlier, we're merely here to prevent the senseless bloodshed that your grudge match would yield, bloodshed that we understand that would wake Gaia, or Terra if you prefer, and usher in the end of the world. As we had barely survived preventing Apophis from ushering in the same, we couldn't exactly stand by and let you blindly follow this path." As Carter reached into his 'locker' in the Duat and pulled out the iPad given to him by Hermes, he then handed it over to the distrustful young man as he said, "Here. Hermes gave this to us when he was alerting us to the situation that was unfolding here, but I believe that we were meant to pass it on to you guys. It may clarify what's going on here, not to mention show that Chiron was telling you the truth."

The boy looked at it with his crazy eyes narrowing for a second before tossing it to the ground, which caused the screen to crack in a spiderweb fashion, then he spat at Carter, "Do you think that we Romans are such fools to accept gifts or words of assurances from Greeks or their allies?"

"_Hi-nehm!_" Sadie cried out as she pointed her staff at the iPad, which repaired itself and looked as if it was never damaged. Then she picked it up and handed it over to the female commander as she said with a smile, "Here you go, ma'am! It looks as if your friend is even clumsier than my brother, so I guess I out to give this to you instead."

"He's not my friend," the female commander said in reply, looking as if she was having a hard time stopping herself from smiling, "and my name's Reyna, though you people may refer to me as Praetor Reyna, or just Praetor."

"Reyna!" the young man barked at Reyna, then when she turned and glared at him, he took a step back and lowered his head as he said in a lower tone, "I mean Praetor, we cannot accept anything from these people, not their words or their gifts! We need to attack, before we lose the element of surprise!"

As Reyna activated the iPad and released it from the lock screen, she showed him the screen upon which a tactical map was displayed; which included the positions of the Greeks both here and on standby in camp, the large force of Egyptians that was standing before her, the Romans currently with her, and the moving positions of those still on their way. "It would appear, Octavian, that the element of surprise was lost long before we even got here. Besides, in case you hadn't noticed, we are badly outnumbered here, and most of our equipment has yet to arrive! You would advocate an attack under such conditions?"

"We have both of their leaders before us!" Octavian countered, "We take them down, we would have their forces in disarray and ready to be brought down by our main attack force!"

Zia, her eyes nearly flaming figuratively as much as her hands were now literally, growled at Octavian, "You would speak such before me, little man!?"

"Easy, Zia," Carter said softly as he placed a gentle restraining hand on her shoulder, then he turned towards Octavian as he said, "Your leader is wise, you would be best served by listening to her council. It would not do to underestimate our combat abilities or the magical abilities we possess. We did not come to fight, but that does not mean we are unprepared to nor incapable of defending ourselves."

I had not liked this Octavian for the moment I first laid eyes upon him, but back then I had not realized exactly why that was. It was almost as if there was something about the smell of his deodorant or cologne that rubbed me the wrong way. However, as he turned back towards Carter, I suddenly realized that was exactly it: I did not like his smell! It wasn't his deodorant, cologne, or lack of the same; I was smelling something else about him that I did not like! Neither my separate and varied experiences as Walt Stone or Anubis had prepared me for the sensations this joint experience brought. That's why I hadn't identified it right away!

As Octavian starts to say, "Now see here…" I rushed forward and tightly gripped his shoulder and _pilum_, feeling as if my eyes were glowing with their own dark fire. "Walt!" Carter called out to me, but I ignored him as my eyes bored into Octavian's frightened ones, my voice dangerously low and even as I said, "The stench of wrongful death is strong upon you, Octavian! I smell the blood of murder on your hands!"

"I don't know what you're talking about!" Octavian squeaked fearfully at me, then he turned to Reyna and screeched, "They're attacking! Save me! Kill them now!"

She didn't look as if she was getting ready to leap to his defense, but I figured a small warning might be prudent for the others. Carefully controlling the output of the levels, I allowed my power to flow out from the soles of my feet and through the hand holding the pilum, causing the grass to wither and die in a wide swath around the two of us and ruining the perfection of Octavian's weapon. Predictably, the watching Romans and Greeks, and even a few of our own magicians, took a couple cautious and fearful steps back.

As my power worked upon the pilum the weapon's history unfolded before me, revealing to my eyes and my mind what my nose only hinted at. The reprehensible act revealed in full, I'm afraid that the girl's resemblance to Sadie unnerved me to the point I was unable to fully suppress the growl in my voice as I said, "Don't try to lie to me, mortal! You cannot hide your sinful act from my eyes! I can feel your embarrassment and anger as you lost the war games to the Fifth Cohort and was knocked cold by the graecus. When you came to, you saw Gwendolyn, the Centurion of the Fifth Cohort, standing with her back towards you, her arms raised in jubilant victory. In your fury, you took your _pilum_ and ran her through!"

"You're wrong! You're lying!" Octavian screeched fearfully, "Let me go!"

"Tell me, your advocating this attack on this camp, your venomous words against Percy Jackson and his friends; did they all truly stem from a genuine, if senseless fear of the Greeks, or are you perhaps secretly allied with Terra?" I growled at him, "You should count yourself lucky that you were born Roman and are bound by their laws of Death! If you found yourself in my court, I promise you I'd take your wicked heart and feed it to Ammit the Devourer myself!"

With those last words, I release Octavian and his _pilum_, causing him to stumble back for a few steps before he manages to regain his balance, then he tries to put on a brave face as he snarls back at me, "Do you think that your little fairy tale changes anything? The people who are here already know the truth of what happened! When our main force gets here, we will crush you and your lies into dust!"

"Do they?" I replied questioningly, "I understand that the investigation that was to take place got stalled with Gwen's resurrection and the subsequent attack of the giant Polybotes, then got forgotten entirely when you launched your attack on this camp."

"Besides, I think that you'll have more to fear from your arriving forces than we would," Carter added, "I may not have Anubis' nose, but I know a silver-tongued devil when I see one. As you reminded me so much of Desjardins, I figured that you would likely be capable of twisting what happens here to your liking, provoking those who have yet still to arrive into following you into battle. That's why I made sure that everyone aligned with your side knew exactly what happened here, not merely your own edited version." He then gestured with his staff to the spot to the spot on the ground where he'd sketched the hieroglyph earlier as he said, "When I saw that all of you Romans bore those strange tattoo-like brands, I'd cast a spell and linked it to them. Anyone who bears a marking like that on their bodies, as well as anyone who is within a few feet radius of them, will be able to both see and hear everything that goes on here, as if that tattoo has become their personal closed-circuit TV and this hieroglyph is a security camera that's linked to it. The spell won't last for more than another hour, but distance has no effect on it. Believe me, your reinforcements saw and heard everything here perfectly."

As his eyed widened in horror, Octavian looked down at his arm and saw that Carter was telling the truth. Gaping around at the forces with them and those still gathered on the hill, he saw that a few of them were just now looking up from their branded arms, and everyone was glaring at him balefully. Looking at Reyna imploringly, Octavian pleaded, "Praetor, you can't seriously be believing what these Egyptian allies of the Greeks are saying, can you?"

Looking at him as if he was something disgusting that she'd found on the bottom of her boot, Reyna replied stiffly, "Believe me, Octavian, I'm not taking their word at face value. But I believe that we were remiss in embarking on this assault without first completing our investigation, and I cannot let such an accusation go unheeded. Seize him!"

I'll give it to that weasel; for someone who looks so genuinely unathletic, he sure was fast as he dashed away from the Romans who tried to grab him. Fortunately, as fast as Octavian was, Zia was faster. Hurling the Ribbons of Hathor, Zia yelled "_Tas!_" and Octavian flopped to the ground looking like a bright pink mummy. As the Romans got to where he was, Zia made the Ribbons release him and Octavian slumped over in their arms looking defeated. As they dragged the murderous young man away, Reyna turned back towards us as she said, "We will investigate this matter fully and will make sure that Octavian is punished accordingly. However, I hope that you understand that this changes nothing. My gratitude for your revelation notwithstanding, those with me have come to seek justice for what happened with our camp, and it is my duty to lead us to claim it. As my people have no claim of vengeance against you Egyptians, and you may have helped to clear up a mystery of what had happened to my loyal Centurion, I hope you'll accept my expression of gratitude and depart here in peace before our attack."

"Your gratitude is accepted, Madam Praetor, but even if the artifacts that we used to come here weren't in a cooldown period and unable to transport us again for a while, even if your bloody fighting wasn't going to wake up your bloody Terra, we can't just run off and let you people take your anger out on these kids who've done nothing deserve it," Sadie said as she drew a line in the ground in front of her with her staff. Then she slams her staff into the ground as cries out "_Drowah!_", which causes a huge wall of light to spring up from the line she drew and spread in both directions, encircling us and the camp, separating us from the Romans before us. "No offence intended, ma'am. I'm sure that you and yours are good people in general, that skinny weasel being the exception. But I know from my brother's account that these Greeks are good people as well, and I can't bear to watch good blokes fight one another without any bloody good reason!"

"Well said, sis," Carter complimented her, then he turned back to Reyna as he said, "As the Pharaoh of the House of Life, it is my duty to protect the sanctity of all life. Turning a blind eye to a civil war that would effectively end the world as we know it would fly in the face of what we stand for. So I hope you don't take it personally, but if you want to get at the Greeks you'll have to go through us first. This is one line you will not be crossing easily, so I hope you'll consider carefully when you make your decision."


End file.
